vincec

I like Wilcots. He leaves Simms in the dust, that's for sure.

Totally a cheap shot. Launched himself at the head of a sliding QB and knocked him out... cold.

Interesting. I was looking at points per game, which has them at #24 in 2014 and #19 in 2013. Not sure which measuring stick is more accurate, although it's bizarre that you could be # 6 in yards per game but #24 in points per game in the same season.

This is the thing that concerns me. The Jets had defenses ranked in button third of the league his last two seasons there and now the are top ten. I know they added a couple of players but that's pretty big jump. Meanwhile, Rex comes to Buffalo and their previously top 10 defense is now bottom half. What's going on?

Losing to the Bills is inexcusable to most franchises in the NFL.

Awesome. If that doesn't show how sad this franchise has been over the last 15 years then nothing does.

That's right. We just need to be patient. We've waited 15 years, what's another 1 or 2?

Lol. Warren Zevon is the best.

Gilmore is good, but I'm pretty sure that the Bills can go 3-4 without him so it's not like he's been a major difference maker. But given Rex's scheme Ithink it's likely that they re-sign him for big money and let front 7 guys walk as their contracts come up. For example, I doubt that Mario or Kyle Williams will get new contracts in Buffalo.

All is good. Once they get their missing HOF players back from injury thel'll be back on track for their Suber Bowl run. No need to panic.

I'd rather have Fitz than Tannehill.

I don't remember #2 on the Cleveland list but that sounds absolutely brutal.

I remember that 2004 game vs Cleveland. I was watching it at a bar and the place was at a fever pitch hoping that they could knock Cleveland for a loss on their final drive and have them finish the game with 0 yards of total offense. Even now thinking that an NFL team had 17 yards of TOTAL offense in the entire game is unimaginable.

If that's holding, then there is holding on every single pass play. That may have been holding 20 years ago. It is not holding today.

I suspect the Pats* are going to bring the Dolphins back down to earth this week.

I think that this is so sad. I thought he was pretty impartial until he started working for the team. Now he is a major spin artist or "turd polisher" as you say.

FB is obsolete in today's NFL. I'm surprised that he plays 24% of the snaps honestly.

Disguise needs to be part of a defense, otherwise you end up with Dave Wannstedt's D. Offenses are too good to play against if they can qickly and easily recognize your configurations. The Bills (and apparently the Browns) just aren't doing it well enough.

Clay's going to draw a lot of attention. We'll see if the Bills can design ways to get him the ball or if they just let the defense dictate that he's going to be a non-factor as they apparently do with Sammy.

I don't claim to be an expert, but my take is this: Schwartz's defense was designed to maximize the playmaking of the front 4 and allow the rest of the defense to play with 7 DBs in various coverages as much as possible. The DL was focused on penetration from wide positions with lots of stunting. The secondary used more zones and focused on disguise to allow the DL time to work. The basic idea is that if you can stop the run with 7 and get pressure with four, you are going to be very tough to move the ball against. Rex's scheme is to play much more man coverage to allow more players in the box- safeties and LBs to play the run and blitz (or fake blitz). The DL plays more traditional run first defense and have more two gap responsibilities. The defense is really designed to work with superior linebackers (especially the outside guys), excellent cornerbacks and big immovable linemen. I thin Rex has been playing much more 1 gap with the DL than he did in NY but they are still no where near as free to wreak havoc as they were under Schwartz. One thing that has improved- with the DL playing more conservatively and more players in the box the run defense is better than last year. However, the pass defense relies on confusing the blocking schemes and effective blitzing and that hasn't been happening. Simply put, I think that Schwartz's scheme may fit the Bills personnel better but they are talented enough as a group to play any decent scheme and be successful.

I've got nothing to do with those other threads so I don't really know why you're bringing them up to me. If Rex agrees with you that the defense has done "pretty good" then that's a problem right there. And before he says that "he knows where this is going to end up" again, he should check to see where in fact his defense did finish the last two seasons. I don't think it will be what he expects to find.

What happens to the numbers if we remove the two bottom 10 teams that they've played- Miami and Indy? See it works both ways.

The grass in Chicago is pretty shaky if I recall.

If the rankings are worthless then why use them to defend the team? This team is NOT currently a top 10 defense. And of the 6 teams they have played so far only 2 have top to offenses. So the statement that this is a top 10 defense playing top 10 offenses is false. I don't see them. The team is #16 is points per game allowed. That's the best measure per coach Ryan (and I agree). Not top 10.

Top ten in what respect? The last stats I saw showed them at #20 in total defense and #19 in scoring defense. Remember that you can't fix a problem until you admit that there is one to start with. I think that's an issue here.